We report the monolithic integration, fabrication, and electrooptical properties of AlGaAs-GaAs-based transceiver (TRx) chips\r\nfor 850nm wavelength optical links with data rates of multiple Gbit/s. Using a single butt-coupled multimode fiber (MMF),\r\nlow-cost bidirectional communication in half- and even full-duplex mode is demonstrated. Two design concepts are presented,\r\nbased on a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) and a monolithically integrated p-doped-intrinsic-n-doped (PIN) or\r\nmetal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodetector. Whereas the VCSEL-PIN photodiode (PD) chips are used for high-speed\r\nbidirectional data transmission over 62.5 and 50 �µm core diameter MMFs, MSM TRx chips are employed for 100 or 200 �µm\r\nlarge-area fibers. Such a monolithic transceiver design based on a well-established material system and avoiding the use of external\r\nfiber coupling optics is well suited for inexpensive and compact optical interconnects over distances of a few hundred meters.\r\nStandard MMF networks can thus be upgraded using high-speed VCSEL-PIN transceiver chips which are capable to handle data\r\nrates of up to 10 Gbit/s.
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